X snapped back to his senses.
All of the surveillance screens before him had, at the exact same moment, been completely filled by four enormous, writhing masses of flesh—so lifelike that they made his stomach churn.
The flesh entirely blocked every angle of vision into the facility. X had no way of knowing what state the company was currently in.
"Pure flesh shouldn't be able to block every camera at once…"
X stood up from his chair, his expression turning grim.
"Is this its special ability?"
"Is that why it looked at me back then…?"
"It was just a glance! And it can already blind my vision like this?"
In the City, all kinds of bizarre Singularities and near-mystical abilities were commonplace.
At the end of the day, this was an ALEPH-level Abnormality. Being capable of something like this wasn't all that surprising.
"O-06-20 has breached containment! Suppress it immediately!"
"X i has been lost. We should strengthen our joint training procedures!"
"Manager! O-06-20 has breached containment! Should we deploy an emergency response team?"
Fortunately, the incoming reports from Hod and Malkuth meant that X wasn't completely blind to the situation.
"Alright. I understand."
X forced himself to calm down and replied in a low voice.
"Malkuth, continue reporting any changes."
"Hod, confirm the mental states of the employees. If anyone is approaching critical psychological thresholds, report to me immediately."
As he issued orders, X turned to his secretary.
"Angela, how long will it take to restore the surveillance?"
"Three seconds."
Her answer was crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
"Good. As expected of our company's super AI."
Hearing her confident voice behind him, X finally let out a small breath and sat back down.
The writhing flesh packed the surveillance screens so tightly that not a single gap remained.
By the time Angela restored the system, O-06-20 was already gone from that containment unit.
All that remained were walls and floors drenched in blood—mocking him with their silence.
"No Abnormality has appeared inside the facility yet. Possibly because O-06-20 is still wearing an employee's skin."
After processing the massive data stream that had come back, Angela spoke.
"But we've detected intense Inverse Qliphoth energy fluctuations. It may soon fully breach containment."
"…In its original form."
"So that means an ALEPH-level Abnormality will appear inside the company?"
X said quietly.
He tapped a few buttons, pulling up the equipment records of all employees. After reviewing them, a bitter smile appeared on his face.
"I don't think this junk can stop it from slaughtering its way through the facility…"
Those HE-level E.G.O sets—normally reassuring just to look at—suddenly seemed no different from children's toys in his eyes.
HE and ALEPH were only two tiers apart on paper…
But no one would seriously believe that a third-rank fixer could be compared to a first-rank one, even if both specialized in combat.
"This was my mistake…"
X let out a weary sigh.
"Prepare to restart the day. At the very least, I now understand its work preferences."
Beep.
Hearing the notification tone, X 's hand paused just before pressing the reset button.
"…Please wait."
Angela connected herself to the communication system and began reading the urgent message.
"…"
"…Alright. I understand."
After finishing at remarkable speed, she walked over to X with long strides.
"This is an emergency notice from the Research Department. I'll relay it to you."
She cleared her throat and recited in a flat, emotionless tone, as if reading from a script:
"When O-06-20 was initially extracted, due to its special nature, a fragment of its own body was left behind."
"We used that flesh to create a weapon, hoping it could be used to directly suppress O-06-20 in the event of an emergency."
"However, further research revealed that while it is in its canine-like form, every part of its body can be considered a core."
"This emergency weapon cannot suppress it directly and is highly likely to provoke it instead."
"However, there is good news."
Angela's tone returned to normal.
"According to the Information Department's latest analysis, when O-06-20 is wearing human skin, all of its cores are concentrated in the head."
"Simply put, this round can directly neutralize it—provided it is still wearing human skin."
"The Research Department's emergency round has been remotely linked to your exclusive weapon system. You may fire it at any location within the facility."
"Wait… I have a Manager-exclusive weapon system?"
"Please don't interrupt at a time like this, Manager."
Angela stopped X 's poorly timed remark with visible exasperation.
"This round is single-use, and it is extremely unstable."
"Once the round is chambered, you will have ten seconds to kill it—before it tears off the skin and reveals its true form."
—
Click.
The sound of the round chambering was crisp and lethal.
A massive red crosshair appeared at the center of the main screen, with a conspicuous indicator beneath it:
Ammo X 1
The ten-second countdown began.
10
X 's mind raced.
With only four departments' worth of space, ten seconds wasn't enough to search every corner.
He needed a way to narrow down its location immediately.
9
Even if it was fast, it couldn't have gone far during the few seconds when the cameras were blocked…
Thinking that, X glanced at one of the screens displaying Inverse Qliphoth energy concentrations.
Energy Concentration Area: Training Department
His guess was correct.
8
With the range narrowed to the Training Department, the search area shrank drastically.
But at that moment, X froze.
He realized he didn't actually know what the employee named X i looked like.
7
6
5
That moment of hesitation cost him nearly three precious seconds.
When X finally thought of a solution, only half the time remained.
The key realization was simple:
After putting on human skin, O-06-20 could only imitate an employee wearing a suit.
It could not imitate the E.G.O equipment worn before death.
"A suspicious individual wandering the facility in an employee suit."
That alone narrowed the possibilities to the extreme.
X scanned every Training Department feed at breakneck speed, searching for the single figure not wearing E.G.O gear.
4
When his gaze landed on the Training Department's Elevator No. 2, one silhouette caught his attention.
A suit that looked neat enough.
A body stiff and unnatural, like a marionette.
"Found you."
X 's eyes sharpened.
His finger moved as one with his will.
3
Bang!!!
The shot rang out.
The bullet struck "X i" squarely in the head, causing it to explode like a watermelon smashed by a sledgehammer.
"Hit!"
X shouted.
Because the emergency effects of the TT2 Protocol hadn't fully disengaged yet, the blood and brain matter—despite the skull having burst apart—were frozen in the instant before dispersing.
Through the cognitive filter, the scene wasn't horrifying.
Instead, it carried an absurd, grotesquely distorted sense of artistry.
The final three seconds ended.
Time resumed.
Blood and fluids sprayed violently across the elevator walls and ceiling. The headless body staggered, its knees buckled, and it collapsed forward.
But even then, it wasn't over.
The body began to disintegrate at a visible rate.
Skin, muscle, and bone dissolved into blood-red sludge, pooling into a bubbling mass of gore and flesh.
Amid that carnage lay a small, pulsing cocoon of flesh.
It didn't last long.
The eyeballs embedded in it twitched desperately a few times before bursting apart, collapsing completely and joining the surrounding filth.
No sign of life remained.
"…"
The alarms in his ears remained at Level One, rather than escalating to Level Two.
The surveillance feed switched back to the containment unit.
As the instruments inside activated, the massive flesh-dog reappeared where it belonged.
"At this point…"
Seeing that one-third of the Abnormality Codexhad been unlocked, X temporarily set aside the idea of rewinding time.
"Let's run a few more work sessions on this thing first. Once I fully understand its management procedures… then I'll restart the day."
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